Friday, June 19, 2009

Monkey pod

Locations: Naha, north of Kokusai street; from the Mitsukosji department store, walk a couple blocks east and turn down a street than appears to have several restaurants on it (sorry, cannot be more specific). On the west side of the street, ie your left, within about a block will be a wooden construction cafe with vintage Americana decor. This is Monkeypod - they have a mini-chalkboard sign outsideHours: unknownOptions for non-touristy food are scarce in the Kokusai district. We toileted in Mitsukoski (downstairs) and then headed east and north to look for a halfway decent restaurant. Monkeypod had the right vibe. The place is adorable, with vintage Hawaii-theme stuff everywhere. They have an English menus - 750Y for pasta and a drink, 1000Y approx for a locomoco set or Hawaiian plate. We got an array. The food was not spectacular, but was decent. All sets came with a light consomme and ice/hot coffee/tea plus a small piece of angel food cake with mango syrup sauce. The pasta was a creamy mushroom, well-prepared but a bit dull. The Hawaiian food plate had four segments - curried potato salad, rice, mini locomoco, and fried chicken bits. Again, nice, but better food is to be found at Hanahou. Really, the attraction is that this is an artsy, tranquil place within stone's throw of the hustle and artifice of Kokusai street. And that alone is worth a visit for those in the area.

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Why this site?

We don't like resorts. We avoid tour groups. We like good food for reasonable money, and where possible we want to give our money to local people, not corporations. There isn't much English-language information on Okinawa for people like us, so we thought we'd share what we learn.